Big Cable thinks it can break FCC rules by ignoring Net Neutrality

From The Daily Kos and Demand Progress:

Comcast, T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T are all acting like they’re above the law.

Each one of them is breaking the Net Neutrality rules the FCC passed last year, daring the FCC to challenge them.

This is the first major test of how the FCC will implement the Net Neutrality rules. We need to make sure the FCC knows we're watching and sets the precedent that violating Net Neutrality has real consequences.

Take action now to protect Net Neutrality. File a complaint with the FCC demanding they enforce the Net Neutrality rules they passed last year and rein in Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.

Since we won at the FCC, and since we keep winning in Congress, Comcast and friends have a new strategy: just break the rules.1,2

Here’s how it works:

When we won, the FCC never banned “zero rating”—the practice where Internet providers exempt some sites or services from their own monthly limits (“data caps”). Instead, the FCC said they’d look at zero rating “case by case.”

Meanwhile, data caps are still allowed. And ISPs can dramatically slow down your Internet after you hit the cap. See where this is going?

All ISPs have to do is keep our data caps low, and then exempt some sites from the cap. “Special” sites. The ones that pay them $$$.

In other words, every site that Comcast and AT&T don’t approve of gets thrown in a slow lane. We can’t let this happen. File a complaint to the FCC now!

If you can, please try to personalize your complaint and your Internet provider will have to respond to you and report back to the FCC.

Independent policy experts are telling us that the FCC is making up its mind on this now, and that they’re only hearing from… (guess who?) Comcast, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon.

Submitting takes just a few seconds, and the FCC needs to hear from as many of us as possible!

It’s so important that the FCC hear from all of us Internet users! This takes less than a minute. GO FOR IT!

Thanks for speaking out.

Support postal banking

From the Daily KOS:

Imagine if your local post office also offered check-cashing services and provided small dollar loans.

Sign the petition by Daily Kos and a coalition of allies urging the Postmaster General to make postal banking a reality now.

Nearly 28% of U.S. households (mostly low-income) are underserved by traditional banks, and must rely on for-profit payday lenders, check cashers and other financial predators.

Postal banking is a reality in other developed countries, and was a reality in the United States from 1911-1966. The USPS is a well-trusted public institution with over 30,000 branches that can provide affordable, nonprofit, consumer-driven financial services.

Sign if you agree: We need postal banking now.

Keep fighting,
Paul Hogarth, Daily Kos

Defeat TPP once and for all

From The Daily Kos:

In a dramatic turn of events on Friday, the House of Representatives narrowly voted to pass Fast Track trade authority, 219-211, thus opening the door for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and many other horrible trade "deals" down the road.

But there is a HUGE catch which means we can still stop Fast Track early next week, and defeat TPP once and for all.

Sign and send the petition to your member of the House of Representatives: Vote against TAA to stop Fast Track and protect American jobs.

Just before the House voted to pass Fast Track, it overwhelmingly voted to defeat something called TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance)—which funds "worker training" by cutting Medicare. The House needed to pass TAA in order for the bill to go to President Obama's desk, because TAA was in the Senate version of the bill.

Without TAA, the House and Senate have to come up with an entirely different bill, and then both re-vote on the whole thing again. What's more, the Senate probably can't pass Fast Track without TAA. They tried that last month, and failed.

Now, there will be another vote on TAA in the House this Tuesday. If we can defeat it again—and yesterday we crushed it 302-126—then Fast Track and TPP all go away and we win!

Sign and send the petition to you member of the House of Representatives: Vote to against TAA and stop Fast Track and TPP once and for all.

Keep fighting,
Chris Bowers, Daily Kos

P.S. Please read our write-up of what happened.

Tell Congress let the public see TPP

From The Daily KOS:

One of the most controversial aspects of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is that it’s secret from the public. If the proponents of the agreement have their way, the text will still be secret from the public when the House votes on Fast Track trade negotiating authority, essentially a vote to pre-approve the agreement.

Members of Congress, individually and collectively, could do something about this. For example,
•The House and Senate intelligence committees have the power to declassify any document in their possession if they believe that doing so would serve the public interest;
•Any individual Member of Congress could publish — e.g., by entering into the Congressional Record — a portion of the draft TPP negotiating text, as Republican Congressman Darrel Issa did when he published the intellectual property chapter;
•Members of the House who have not yet committed to vote no on Fast Track could pledge to vote no on Fast Track if the text of the TPP is not made public before the vote.

Urge Congress to use its power to force publication of the TPP text by signing our petition.

USA Freedom Act is going to take away your freedoms

From The Daily KOS:

In a major capitulation, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has given up trying to extend the Patriot Act. Instead, he has agreed to bring the USA Freedom Act to the floor of the Senate, which he had previously refused to do.

The USA Freedom Act is a flawed bill, but it is better than the Patriot Act, as it contains some reforms to the NSA's mass surveillance programs.

But McConnell has a new plan. At 2:00 PM eastern TODAY the U.S. Senate will vote on a series of amendments designed to further weaken the USA Freedom Act by undercutting many of its reforms.

That includes extending the program of mass surveillance on every American citizen for another year, keeping important court decisions secret, and weakening a requirement that the court consult with a group of experts to discuss privacy problems in any of the court's orders.

Before the votes start, we need you to call your U.S. senators and urge them to vote NO on all attempts to weaken our civil liberties. You can use the website and sample script you see below:

Contact your Senators

Sample phone script

Please vote NO on all amendments designed to erode our civil liberties by weakening the USA Freedom Act. Spying on citizens and unchecked mass surveillance are unacceptable.